Since the news broke and sounds legit that we have a team, will the owners offer Mr. Kevin Calabro is job as the voice of the Sonics back? He spent 19 yrs with the Supersonics, and stood his ground and said if the Sonics leave, I stay. Ironicly, and I just read this, he started his professional career as the play-by-play announcer for the Kansas City Kings in the 1983–84 season. The same Kings that moved to Sacramento and is now heading North to Seattle.

Short answer is yes. He lives in Seattle and has a part time radio show in Seattle and calls some national NBA games, plus said he'd do it in a heartbeat. Throw in the fact that Mr Hanson embraces Sonics history.

Doesn't sound like a done deal yet. I think Sacramento is still putting up a way better fight than Seattle and they have Seattle's mistakes to learn from. At this point we know the Maloofs are out for sure. Now it is between the owners based in Seattle vs the owners based in Sacramento as they will have a shot to convince the NBA board one last time with a better offer. I think they have till April.

strohmin wrote:Doesn't sound like a done deal yet. I think Sacramento is still putting up a way better fight than Seattle and they have Seattle's mistakes to learn from. At this point we know the Maloofs are out for sure. Now it is between the owners based in Seattle vs the owners based in Sacramento as they will have a shot to convince the NBA board one last time with a better offer. I think they have till April.

Of course it is not absolutely "official" until the Board of Governors approves the sale and the Relocation Committee approves the move. But this is about as much of a "sure thing" as you can get without the team packing the moving vans. Stern has stated that he wants Balmer in the league. Hansen has clear connections with the front office. Balmer and Hansen have been working Stern and the NBA politics through this whole deal. If they presented the case of franchise relocation to the NBA leadership the way they handled the arena proposal in Seattle - slam dunk! The Hansen group is WAY too smart to not go public with this unless they had assurances that it is going to be approved. Kevin Johnson is being allowed to present his case to the Board of Governors mostly as way to allow him to "save face" with the city. They have had 3 or 4 years to put together a local ownership sale and have failed to do so. Unlike the sale of the Sonics to Bennett, which essentially came somewhat out-of-the-blue (there were murmurings of a Shultz sale, but nothing as public as the Maloof fiasco), the city of Sacramento has had multiple years to solve the problem, and get local ownership. The Hansen group WAY overpaid for the Kings...not sure any local buyer would be willing to match the extreme price now sitting on the table.

My only question: Is Sacramento being robbed of their team like we were? Or is it not the same because as far as I can tell, the city has had a fair shot at keeping the team. I hope they have. I would love to have our Sonics back, but not if it means we are robbing another city and its fans.

TheLargentLine wrote:My only question: Is Sacramento being robbed of their team like we were? Or is it not the same because as far as I can tell, the city has had a fair shot at keeping the team. I hope they have. I would love to have our Sonics back, but not if it means we are robbing another city and its fans.

TheLargentLine wrote:My only question: Is Sacramento being robbed of their team like we were? Or is it not the same because as far as I can tell, the city has had a fair shot at keeping the team. I hope they have. I would love to have our Sonics back, but not if it means we are robbing another city and its fans.

I hope he returns to the Sonics. Hopefully that will get him off the Pac 12 network. He's pretty good at calling basketball but i heard him doing a few football games for the Pac 12 network and he was awful.

Oh stop. Of COURSE he's gonna be back. Remember, Chris Hansen is a Sonics fan. You think he's NOT gonna have the "Dave Niehaus of Basketball" call the games? No brainer. Just wouldn't be right... It's gonna give me chills the first time I hear "Magic Carpet Ride" spewed from Calabro's throat...

TheLargentLine wrote:My only question: Is Sacramento being robbed of their team like we were? Or is it not the same because as far as I can tell, the city has had a fair shot at keeping the team. I hope they have. I would love to have our Sonics back, but not if it means we are robbing another city and its fans.

It's all perspective really... Our owner is not buying this team with any intention of asking the city of Sacramento to buy him a $500 million arena... He's got a privately financed arena in Seattle.

Hansen has made no promises to season ticket prices flat for the next 5 years...

Every Sonic fan knew that there was really only one way to get a franchise back in seattle... We were going to break some other city's hearts.

Schultz made demands for a new arena with no promises or desire to work with the city. Sacramento bent over backwards for the Kings and their owners are the ones that gave up on the city.

Love Calabro, back in the day when Sonics games were blacked out and pay per view I'd sit on my bed and listen to KC call games. He was a poet out there, especially in those close, playoff games 90's. I can still hear him....

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the great radio announcers that I grew up with in my younger years. I know every body is addicted to all the games on ESPN or Fox sports whatever these days but I used to love listening to all sports on the radio growing up.

I am rambling a little but the great radio announcers that could really create a picture in your head of what was going on were truly skilled individuals.